‚Cities, myths, mystifications. Toposemiotics of city space’

18 grudnia 2013

The City Culture Institute and dr Hubert Bilewicz also invites to a series of lectures with cities as main motifs. The second meeting will take place on 18 December at 7 a.m. in our lobby. Dr Jacek Friedrich of Gdańsk will give a lecture entitled ‚Gdańsk: Nationalist City Creation’.

Next lectures will be focused on Gdynia, Rome, Paris, Kiev, Lviv, and Venice.

The choice of the cities is explained by the host, dr Hubert Bilewicz: ‚Cities have their history and mythology. The chosen ones are full of historical narrations and myths.

I know those cities very well, I can say a lot about them and listen to other people speaking… Cities are also imaginary places, places in symbolic topography, locations of memories. I often come back to cities defined in such a way. Cities, myths, mystifications. Toposemiotics of city space’ is a series of monthly lectures focused on cities not only as space creations and urban and architectural structures but also as fields of cultural strata, palimpsest histories and social interactions. Cities as ideological creations and symbolic places; cities covered by myths, and cities involved in the history.

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Schedule of lectures ‚Cities, myths, mystifications. Toposemiotics of city space’:

21 May — Venice: city and death / dr Hubert Bilewicz (University of Gdańsk)

The lectures take place on Wednesdays at the City Culture Institute, ul. Długi Trag 39/40, from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Admission free.

The Coal Market (Targ Węglowy) actions are still in progress — we keep discussing with the citizens (4 December)

We invite the citizens of Gdańsk and everyone finding the Coal Market (Targ Węglowy) important to a discussion on potential usage of the Square and the people’s preferences on the matter. Please come on Wednesday, 4 December 4 p.m. to our lobby.

At the turn of September 2013, we invited the citizens to spend their leisure time in the space we temporarily arranged. During 10 days of our initiative, we encouraged the citizens of Gdańsk to share their opinions and ideas on the Coal Market (Targ Węglowy). It was the beginning of a process of several month we now continue along with the citizens, professionals, city authorities, and the Square’s stakeholders. During next few month we will be working on ideas that may change the decisions on the place’s image in the future.

Aleksandra Szymańska, the Director of the City Culture Institute says: ‚ We want to involve people who are interested in the future of this place; the citizens, local activists, those who use the Square or those who want to express their opinion. The process will be supported by experts who can decide what can or cannot be done there. During the next meeting, we will present the consultation plan and start a debate on expectations related to it.’